In September 2014, I was invited to participate in a special event sponsored by
Hillsborough Artists' Cooperative at the Skylight Gallery in Hillsborough, NC. The event, entitled "Black and White", featured the work of twelve local artists.
Participating artists were invited to consider many aspects of the symbolism of black and white. We were also instructed that we need not limit our work to the color scheme of black and white. I was honored to be able to contribute my first art quilt for this show. I also participated in a photo shoot with my dear friend and art conspirator
Rev. Tiffney Marley, whose artwork is featured on her
Ethnic Fusions webpage. The photo Tiffney submitted for the show was titled "A Glimpse of Zion -- Goddess." That's my face, in the photo. The hands holding the world belong to both of us.
My favorite photo from the shoot didn't make it into the show. To me it symbolizes that we are powerful together. It symbolizes the victories that we have shared through many hardships. With our gazes on the sky, we have nowhere to go but up.
My own contribution to the show continued the theme of the "goddess" while exploring the future we on earth build together across racial and cultural lines. The piece was inspired by a story shared by artist Shiang-Tai Tuan in the months leading up to the show. As we witnessed yet another dazzling, gigantic "supermoon", Shiang-Tai shared that in Chinese culture this moon was associated with the goddess Chang'e. Hers is a story of love, loss, and sacrifice. She is the dancer in the moon. She is also a patron of the home and hearth.
.jpg) |
"Chang'e Flying to the Moon (Ren Shuai Ying)" by Ren Shuai Ying (任率英) - Ren Shuai Ying,1955. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Here is my interpretation of "Chang'e - Dancer in the Moon"

The red background is a luxurious silk reclaimed from a vintage dress by American designer Geoffrey Beene. The upper left of the photo shows the diamond texture of the silk, which inspired the cross hatch quilting pattern. The moon itself embodies the duality of black and white, each interrupting and entering the space of the other, each participating in the other. The stars in the upper left are embroidered onto the silk fabric, echoing the stars that rise triumphantly through the moon's heart. The house pictured in the foreground is the house Chang'e has left but watches over. And it is a house built of black and white, showing again how we rise together and are strong together. I had only been quilting for a few months when I made this piece, and I did not have a lot of technical expertise. But it opened a channel inside of me. I am so grateful to the members of the Hillsborough Artist's Cooperative at Skylight Gallery for helping me to discover that I am an artist, too.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment